Three-goal hero Fabio Quagliarella is hoping to show Juventus he is the man to boost their title defence when the Italian champions travel to Fiorentina tonight.
The fifth round of Serie A fixtures takes place over three days in midweek and after seeing a host of fellow frontrunners stumble over the weekend Juve have a chance to consolidate their position.
Quagliarella has been used sparingly by caretaker coach Massimo Carrera so far this campaign having endured a difficult time last season after his return to action following surgery on a knee ligament.
Against Chelsea last week, however, Carrera took a chance on the striker and was not disappointed.
Quagliarella came off the bench to score Juve’s second goal in the 2-2 Champions League draw, nutmegging Petr Cech to help Juve grab a share of the points in London.
And the big striker showed he could be the man to boost the champions early season title bid when he hit a brace in a precious 2-0 win over Chievo on Saturday.
“This has been one of the greatest weeks of my life. Today I wanted to show that I’m ready and I think I did that,” Quagliarella said.
It was a result whose true value came to light by the end of Sunday evening.
Napoli’s draw away to Catania, Lazio’s shock defeat at home to Genoa and Sampdoria’s 1-1 draw away at Torino meant for the first time this season Juventus pulled ahead of the pack and now have a two-point lead on Napoli.
Inter also stumbled although it is Milan’s situation which is the most worrying of the two.
While Inter sit sixth, six points adrift of Juve, Milan’s third defeat of the season has dropped the seven-time European champions to 15th place in the table ahead of tomorrow’s home fixture against Cagliari.
Despite their 2-1 reverse against Udinese and finishing the match with nine men following red cards for Cristian Zapata and Kevin Prince Boateng, team coach Massimiliano Allegri has been given the backing of the club.
“Allegri has my confidence and that of president (Silvio) Berlusconi,” Adriano Galliani said.“Milan played far better, I saw a team improvement.”
However the fact that neither Milan nor Inter have won at their shared San Siro home this season, either in the domestic campaign or in Europe, is likely to weigh.
Allegri, whose side was stripped of several big names during the summer including Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Thiago Silva, has also had a number of players injured.
But tomorrow’s home fixture could see the return of Brazilian Robinho, who has been out since the start of the season.
In the event of a fourth league defeat, more doubts on Allegri’s tenure are likely to be raised.
Inter, meanwhile, will be looking to get over their shock 2-0 reverse, their second of the campaign at home, to bottom of the table Siena when they travel to Chievo.
Arguably the plum fixture tomorrow is Lazio’s trip to Napoli.
The clubs boast arguably the most passionate fans in the league and after their weekend setbacks both will be looking to get back to winning ways.